BACKER: The shamed pol still has the support of wife Huma Abedin. (WireImage)

PEC-ING UP THE PIECES: Anthony Weiner, who resigned from Congress last year over a sexting scandal (above), may run for citywide office. (AP, WireImage)

Anthony Weiner’s not shrinking from elected office.

The disgraced former congressman — who’s sitting on a $4.5 million campaign war chest — is mulling a bid for citywide office next year and “seriously considering” a mayoral run, multiple sources told The Post.

The cocky pol is also open to the post of public advocate as a backup plan, said sources, who described the Queens Democrat as “desperate” to get back into politics.

Weiner, 47, has even spoken to former staffers about going back to work for him, according to another source.

And he wants to run soon because the public match on his campaign funds are due to expire after the 2013 election.

“I’ve heard he is seriously thinking about getting into a citywide race in 2013 and would like it to be mayor,” said a source with ties to Weiner. “In his mind, he’s trying to figure out how to run for mayor.”

He’s reached out to politicos to “talk about the landscape,” said a former staffer.

The buzz in political circles is that the sext-happy Weiner has a better shot at public advocate — a $165,000-a-year job viewed as a “cleansing” post where he could put his character issues further behind him as he prepped for a 2017 mayoral run.

“The general feeling is that you can’t text pictures of your penis to a girl, then lie about it, then get kicked out of the House and then run for mayor right after,” said a political consultant. “But people believe there is a way for him to run for a lesser office.”

Potential candidates for public advocate are state Sen. Daniel Squadron, City Council member Letitia James and Reshma Saujani, currently a deputy in the Public Advocate’s Office — none of whom has Weiner’s citywide name recognition or his deep campaign coffers.

The blustery pol has kept a low profile since resigning from Congress in June 2011, after he tweeted a picture of his bulging crotch to a 21-year-old college student and then falsely claimed his account had been hacked.

Since Weinergate, he’s played the quiet role of stay-at-home dad in Queens. His wife, senior Hillary Rodham Clinton aide Huma Abedin, 35, has stayed in her high-powered, globe-trotting post.

Usually dressed down in jeans and a baseball cap, Weiner has been spotted riding the subway in Queens, shopping with his family in SoHo and picking up his wife at the airport with 6-month-old son Jordan in the back seat.

“I still have regrets,” Weiner told WNYC radio last month. “I paid a very high price . . . I feel great regrets for the people I’ve let down.”

Weiner made the media rounds to applaud the US Supreme Court’s health-care decision last month — dipping his toe back into political waters.

But he still has his political infrastructure intact if he decides to launch a campaign.

Weiner still pays rent on a campaign office he leases at 420 Lexington Ave., according to his latest financial-disclosure filing. His ill-fated Twitter account, @RepWeiner, still has 68,821 followers, even though he hasn’t tweeted since June 1, 2011. And his Web site, AnthonyWeiner.com, is still active.